18 Months Old!

Now that Kelly is one and a half (!), she is right on the verge of crashing into the terrible twos. Yes, it's 6 months early, but my own mother will tell anyone who listens that I too began the terrible twos at the age of 18 months. For some foolish reason, I was looking forward to Kelly's 18-month checkup yesterday, because it is always fun to find out how nicely Kelly is growing/developing. Silly me. My only consolation was that poor Dr. Caplan kindly explained, over Kelly's hysterical screams, that it is perfectly normal for a 18-month-old to behave that way at a checkup... lack of control, confusion, etc., etc. My mom had joined us and asked later that night if Kelly was suffering from PTSD. No -- but I was. It was a bit of a shock to see my generally amiable daughter throw such a violent tantrum at the thought of being measured and examined.

On the bright side, she's moving beautifully along the ~20th percentile curve for height and weight (30.25 inches and 22 lbs 6 oz, although I think both were a bit skewed due to the thrashing on the scale) and a whopping 75th percentile for head (18.5 inches!). Wonder where she gets that from?

Don't get me wrong, Kelly can be a delightful child. But she can also be very strong willed. Plus, I think it is really hard on her to not be able to clearly vocalize her needs/desires/feelings. Hopefully, things will get a little easier soon.